Roshen says to halt Russian plant due to political, econ reasons

KIEV, Jan 20 (PRIME) -- Ukrainian confectionery Roshen will stop production on its plant near Russia’s Lipetsk due to political and economic reasons, the company said in a statement on Friday.

“Corporation Roshen is suspending production activities of the Lipetsk facility. This decision was made for political and economic reasons. Full stop and conservation are scheduled for April 2017. As it was said many times before, arrest of property of the Lipetsk confectionery by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in the framework of a criminal case made it impossible to sell the plant,” Roshen said.

Russian prosecutors earlier initiated a 180 million ruble criminal case against the plant, suspecting it of illegal tax refunds.

Output of the confectionery has fallen 67% since 2013 due to a narrowing product range and prohibition by the Russian consumer rights authority to import products from Roshen’s Ukrainian facilities, the company said.

(59.3521 rubles – U.S. $1)

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